Entries tagged with politics

Since I went into seclusion over Smidgen's death, so much bullshit has happened, I just don't know how to properly process it in an acceptable word format. I've been reduced to forwarding news stories and memes, and posting brief interludes of shock and horror at the dismantling of my country. Now, I could share everything I post on Facebook here, but I don't know if that would be something people would want to see, so I leave it to whomever reads this. Do you want me to rant and rave in images and micro-blogs here on the Cliffs, or shall I reserve that for Facebook and Twitter?

In the meantime, if you're wondering what I feel like being so speechless when I'm typically the one who won't shut, just reference this gif of John Cusack. Verily, he is my spirit animal.

I'm listening to a discussion about how college students are protesting ultra-conservative speakers at their graduation ceremonies, and many people on both sides of the fence are tut-tutting these young adults for choices, citing a lack of manners and an inclination to tamp down free speech.NO.These young people are realising what their parents should have twenty years ago, or more. When it comes to extreme views, based on hate and, these days, very thinly veiled, people like that have lost the luxury of being treated with manners, because they don't afford the same to the majority of their fellow Americans.

The time for so-called polite discourse is over, because these people never wanted that; rather, they want people to keep their mouths shut and listen to what they have to say, then toe the line. You can't fight madness like that by following a model the other side abandoned decades ago. If freedom is to survive, those who treasure it and, especially, those who depend on it for their safety from these thugs, need to rise up, exactly like these college graduates are doing.A huge chunk of Baby Boomers turned traitor ages ago, opting for the promise wealth over the ideal of true liberation. Generation X, my generation, is too jaded and complacent to be very effective at all, plus we were the first generation to grow up under the unsupervised shadow of the burgeoning Moral Majority, so many in our own ranks came into adulthood brainwashed, then did the same to their kids, who are even more dedicated to the theocratic movement, which was born out of an intolerance of de-segregation, not a love for foetuses. And the poor Millennials just don't get listened to, because they are so incredibly alien to the former gens, especially the Boomers. (I don't think they're alien, I love Millennials!). Is it any wonder they are choosing more aggressive tactics in a bid to protect what few freedoms they have left?

Was it rude for the graduates of Bethune-Cookman University to turn their backs on Nancy DeVos? That depends. Is it rude for someone who is part of a movement that intrinsically hates non-whites and justifies it with Jesus to presume to make a commencement speech at a college that was created because African Americans weren't allowed in White colleges? The new adult Americans realise something we older ones could not, or would not: You have to give tit for tat, when it comes to irrational, aggressive, narrow-minded people who are about as American as Al Qaeda. The new adult Americans are all Americans' safety net, the only thing coming between us and complete collapse into a Fascist Theocracy.

In late December, I requested an Uber ride up to the store. A handsome, middle-aged gentleman named Moises picked me up. I began a conversation with him, because I loved his accent, but couldn't quite pinpoint the origin. He told me that he was from Iran and that he was a movie director who made a film that that government did not like. For his trouble, he spent a year in jail and, afterward, it was hard to make a living doing anything.

So he legally immigrated to America and is now essentially a taxi driver, after being a creator and visionary. He told me he missed his family and that most of his money goes to them and to save enough to bring them over to him, hopefully next year.

I advised him to go to Mexico or Canada before it was too late. His optimism and faith in the way the United States is supposed to work was heartbreaking.

Ever since I heard the news on the Muslim ban, I can't stop thinking of Moises. It's much more personal when you see the soul-rending results of the decision of an extremist mad man sitting pretty in the White House, ruining lives with the flick of a pen.

When I was still in The Pit, enjoying the interactions I had with a handful of sane music business homies, I often entertained a scenario where a snorkel of voracious, pissed-off weasels methodically skinned her alive, leaving her ravaged, bleeding form to get all manner of unwanted attention by creatures in the forest, who take their janitorial duties quite seriously. To be honest, that’s too good for her. Some people who are reading this post, can attest to a lot of what I’ve been saying about her since 2002, and I will attempt to communicate my memories of that. Essentially, we were at war with one another, not just work-wise, but creatively, business savvy (she had it all over me on that), and every single worldview to which each of us clung up to this very day).

This is someone who used the collective office phone to have a raucous conversation with a sales rep about she would have no clue on how to live on a $20-30K yearly budget, where all of her employees who were managing just that, listened on in disgust. This is someone who began threatening me with termination if, for the next 6 months, I had to drop out of work for even a half day. Aunt Tudi's doc appointments were a mess to reschedule and find other transport if I couldn't figure out how to work around the situation. On top of that, since my cube was right outside her office door, I was always the first one she'd come to each morning to say "G'mooooooorneeeeeeuuuunnn" and pretend civility.

And she loved to stand outside my cube and laud conservatives and everything they've ever done. One of our bitchiest fights was one night, when we were working over on promo campaigns, news came on the radio that Ronald Reagan had finally dropped dead. The Mistress had a sad. I said, "Thank fucking god. It's about time that piece of shit dropped dead. The world suddenly seems lighter and happier." She was scandalised, and began chanting all the good things he supposedly did for America. I shut her arse down with no mercy when I interrupted her to state that I was part Jewish and to watch a POTUS lay wreaths on SS officers graves after doing a PR tour of Bergen Belsen. "I was glad when I found out he was losing what little fucking mind he had, and I'm glad he's dead. I hope he suffered before the end, and I hope he's rotting in hell now."

We didn't speak for a couple of days.

Then a few months later, she was complaining about all the immigrants to me and the lady behind me, Joanie, who is Laotian. Being appropriate is a foreign concept to the Feudal Mistress. I let her say her self-inflated piece, which she ended by saying: "Besides, if they want to come into this country, they need to speak its language!"

To which I replied, "Oh, wow! I didn't know you could speak Cherokee! Let's hear you say something."

I was rewarded with two more days of peace and quiet. Before I left BMG, I purchased a special tee shirt I wanted to wear in a photograph with the Feudal Mistress. Politically, she may be a 9-volt battery, but she was pretty sharp when it came to passive-aggressive innuendo.The expression on our faces say it, don't you think? What I want to try to write about regarding our ongoing war that ended with the day the tee shirt I bought specifically to have a farewell taken with the Feudal Mistress, leaving no doubt in her mind that the entire front of my body is screaming murderdeathkill in a mild-mannered public service announcement. Whoever said that a picture speaks a thousand words should be honoured, or sainted, or given a So Good and True You Are, We Wish to Bestow upon Your Person, this Cliché Master's Medal of Honour.

According to the writer of this article, Christians Are to Blame for the War on Christianity. That's the name of the article. Personally, I would have made a distinct difference between the two groups, and there are two groups - true followers of Christ and extremists who slander him for their own gain. This is perhaps the best article I've ever read on the matter, though. The issue is spelled out under no uncertain terms, and it should be a wake up call to the Christians who suffer the tyranny of these horrible people almost as much as the rest of us. Eventually, though, the xtians, as I call them, will turn on the Christians as well, just as we've seen in the Muslim world. It's all the same, just with different names, and its driving force is power and insanity.

I am pasting the entire piece here, in the event it disappears from Huffington Post, or anywhere else it may be featured. The link to the article itself is in the title below.

Some Christians believe that being anti-Christian is the only acceptable form of bigotry left in America. Outside of the absurdity of the vast majority of the claims offered as "proof" of this fallacy the hypocrisy necessary to make such a claim is phenomenal.

For example, noted conservative pundit Ann Coulter once stated, "liberals always play the victim in order to advance, win advantages and oppress others". While such tactics are hardly exclusive to liberals the supposed "War on Christianity" represents the pinnacle of all self ascribed pity parties.

Christians comprise just over 78% of the U.S. population, which is a significantly higher percentage of the population than the "angry atheists" who only account for 1.6%. What are these poor Christians to do when faced with such overwhelming odds against them?

The problem is that Christians have spent so much time pretending to be victims that they have become oblivious to their own indiscretions.

Spurned HGTV stars David and Jason Benham offer and excellent illustration of this point. The brothers took to Fox News to pen an article discussing how they were dropped from the station for standing by their "Biblical beliefs". Of course the problem wasn't that they were against marriage equality. The problem was that they funded and organized an anti-gay rally because ironically they felt that these "militant gay activists" shouldn't be given the opportunity to express their view that there is nothing "demonic," "veil," or "destructive" about being gay.

Frank Zappa's lucidity in this clip from an episode of Crossfire that aired in 1986.

The entire show is presented here, if you have the time to view it.

The ruse of protecting children and families was one of the first steps the right wing took in dismantling the US constitution. If Zappa were alive today, I think he'd probably reel with horror at the sorry state America is in. Unfortunately, intelligent and insightful individuals like Zappa are dead, whilst aggressively stupid hate-mongers like Pat Robertson are thriving and living in luxury at the expense of the sheeple.

A practice most often encouraged by an extremist minority found in any religion, who are not satisfied to be alone in their struggle to fully embrace and encourage fatuous mythology, which eventually results in participating in unsavoury activities of which this list is but a small portion:

Vote rigging.

Rewriting history.

Picketing for the sole purpose of badgering the people around them

Rewording or omitting passages in their own holy book to better reflect their own dogma.

Threatening and defaming naysayers, most especially if the targeted individuals are often in the public eye.

Obstruction of people’s rights with which they disagree

Supporters of and participants in this movement work toward manifesting their primary agenda, which isto remake their nation(s) into a theocratic state that will impose the ruling minority’s dogma on the vast majority who wouldn’t otherwise take notice.

Adherants to Aggressive Stupidity are present in every religion and, unfortunately because they are the most raucous, they get the most attention, and even get their way, if it means they would just shut the fuck up. Other than the title by which they identify, these groups are almost identical with one another, even if groups under the Stupidity umbrella often fight one another, and do so publicly, accusing their enemy du jour of crimes both feuding parties enthusiastically commit. (Tea Party, please meet your brothers from another mother, the Taliban.)

They seek out the weak to use as proof of god’s displeasure with man, to further bills criminalising homelessness and poverty, giving free rein to those keen on dehumanising them, and eventually manipulate some of them, most of whom were suffering from a religious variation of Stockholm Syndrome into becoming agents dedicated to perpetuating propaganda, which serves to justify the totalitarian occupancy of already defeated nations, and increase the crusade budget with the intention of instituting a global theocracy. When you're hungry and desperate, you're more prone to accept the tenets of those who give you bread.

Listed below are some of the tools and weapons used by the Aggressively Stupid to aid in the forging of a government based on the idea that the minority has the right to exercise authority over the majority:

Support of and/or participation in discriminatory behaviour, claiming that some actions, opinions, or beliefs are ordained by God. Such discrimination polices and many others instituted by the new government are often brutally enforced by an increasingly militarised policing body.

Monetary contributions to political campaigns that are sympathetic to many, if not all, hot button issues about which the Aggressively Stupid obsess.

Erasing the lines that separate Church and State by passing out voter guides in church and pamphlets sharing the “Good News” at secular events such as concerts and conventions. Another example of these tactics used by extremists is the funding of lobby groups that will help advance the budding theocracy’s influence over the population.

Unabashed recruitment and conversion to assist in either growing the controlling body or encouraging unwavering loyalty alongside compulsive witness bearing, all in the name of God.

Bullying and shaming in the attempt to silence rebellious individuals, omit from history any behaviour or activities deemed deviant by the ruling elite, and making nonconformity illegal.

Attempts, some of which have actually been successful, to reinstate the old pecking order originally blueprinted by god himself, that affirms man's dominance over anything else that is not human or does not have a penis. Of course, this declaration is referring to white men only, according to the extremists. Everyone else is subject to the whims of the future theocracy's officials.

It was Aggressive Stupidity that led to Yeshua’s death, which is, in equal measure, tragic and ironic, considering today’s coteries and megachurches full of Aggressively Stupid acolytes, some of whom use his name to promote their agenda, would doubtlessly be the first to scream for capital punishment of this heretic who dared to challenge the authority established in his name.

I was a tad vague in my welcome to the new readers, so I supposed I should be a bit more detailed. Veterans of the Cliffs need not go through it, as you've been through it enough, bless your pea-pickin' hearts.

I'm a writer. An author, now, I guess I should say. My first book, The Chalice, is scheduled to be released to the unsuspecting public next month. It's the first of a trilogy called The Vampire Relics and surrounds the goings-on of a group of Vampires trying to collect those relics whilst dealing with a most unpleasant character by the name of Cadmus Pariah. The books are inspired by and deeply influenced by a band named Shriekback.

I am a freelance promoter of Shriekback, having begun a search for fellow fans in 2000 and accidentally meeting the leader of the band, Barry Andrews. He and I have an odd relationship. It's part friendship, part business-partnership, part hero-worship, and part what the hell? I write about him a lot. He lets me listen to his music before it's unleashed upon the world. He's a lovely fellow of whom I have an unsubstantiated phobia and an undeniable fascination.

I get causes. My last cause was The Joker Blogs. I became such a fervent supporter, I insinuated myself on the promotion team. I still believe in the creator of the Blogs and believe he's the future of Hollywood.

I am owned by four dogs and three cats. I used to have many more cats than I have now, being deep into the animal rescue thing, but finances don't allow me to do that anymore.

My Aunt Tudi lives with me. She's in poor health, as am I, so we spend our down time at doctors' offices harassing healthcare workers.

I'm a misanthropist with a deep-seated hope that the Mayan Calendar is indeed an indication that our species is on the way out. One of my favourite speeches of all time is Mr. Smith's speech to Morpheus in The Matrix, where he declares humanity a virus. No truer words were ever spoken. This extends to children. I think they're walking petri dishes put on this Earth to rattle nerves and spread illness.

I'm a movie buff and music trivia nut. The only type of movies I can't stand are romantic comedies and the only music I can say I truly despise is Country Music. This makes for awkward situations at times since I'm stuck here in Redneck Land.

My two favourite TV shows are no longer on the air. They were Battlestar Galactica and LOST. I'm now down to Law & Order: SVU.

I'm a diehard Liberal. Anything remotely smacking of Fascist thinking or activity is a big turn off to me. Nazis were Fascists and, since I have Jewish blood running through my veins, that's a serious bone of contention for me. Too bad I live in the reddest state besides Texas in the Union.

One of my all-time heroes is Jeff Lynne. If you don't know who he is, look him up. He's an angel on this sad little planet of ours.

I think that's pretty much it. If you have any questions or comments, you know what to do.

I read the rhapsody of the Beast (as I'm calling 'Kids These Days') to Aunt Tudi last night. She did not like it, saying it was too politically motivated. Well, why not? I am politically motivated in many ways and this was an opportunity to express my opinion regarding war and the behaviour of some soldiers during war. These soulless individuals should be trained to understand that war does not mean rampant cruelty and inhumane practices. And, if they continue such behaviour, it may certainly return in supernatural karmic force to literally bite them in the arse.

You are a twit first class, flaming?! Is that an internet term? You must be a stay at home to use email/internt terms, please do you sit at home with your hand out too like a perfect democrat, hand out, crying for help.

Insidious? Now that's funny, really life must just be too much for you to handle if an email is insidious, try not reading and simply deleting next time.

and Cheers to you and your regards

Of course, I couldn't let it go. It would be....unSithly.

How sad that you're unable to form coherent sentences. A stay-at-home what? Could you possibly include a verb and a noun in each sentence, or are you too busy name-calling to speak proper English?

Your assumptions about my private life are insulting and typical of your ilk. I'm certain that you'll be sitting in church, turning the other cheek, come Sunday, secure in your imagined superiority.

If you have any problems understanding any portion of this email, I would direct you to http://www.dictionary.com, in hopes that you're literate enough to comprehend it. It's been my experience that many Right-leaning types are big on arrogance and aggression, but sadly lacking in intelligence. You're doing nothing to dissuade my opinions.

Should you care to engage in a civil conversation, I'm open to share ideas and opinions, and learning of yours. But, if you're keen only on attacking the character of someone who has had enough of unwelcome emails, I would ask that you take your hatred and ignorance elsewhere, like Nazi Germany, where such behaviour was welcome and celebrated.

I'm not certain I'll continue this discourse, though. My heart is about to beat out of my chest from the distress at knowing I'm far outnumbered by people like this. These are the people who held the auto da f&eacute and built the concentration camps. I don't, for one second, doubt that these brutes could and would do it all over again.

After several requests to be taken off her Fascist mailing list, I received yet another offensive email this morning from a former classmate. This one was called "Spreading the Wealth" and it featured this political cartoon.

I snapped. Instead of writing to her privately, I copied everyone and said:

What a pile of crap. Please don't send me any more of this pro-Republican dreck. Anyone who believes the propaganda they're pumping out of their bullshit machine, especially after the past eight years of TERROR perpetrated by that idiot in the White House, is a moron who deserves to end up living in a cardboard box and panhandling for a gallon of gas.

So some tackhead who was copied on all this replied to me, copying everyone as well:

Next time you want to espouse your vac quid mind try not too reply to "EVERYONE" I didn't send it to you and I'd appreciate you keep your rudeness to yourself! JACKASS! or at least address it to the right person. And yes I replied to "EVERYONE" cause I'm sure the others are too kind to call you the JACKASS that you are.

I couldn't let it go.

I've replied to these insidious emails privately before with no results, so I figured a public request might do the trick. Glad you think I'm a jackass and that you've resorted to flaming because you've publicly exposed your level of intellect without my having to do a thing.

Kind Regards

I doubt this person will get the sarcasm because s/he is obviously a slack-jawed drone of the Fascist machine, so I expect another attack in short order. Bring it, bitch. I am a Sith and I will kill you with my brain.

Tonight at Sally Foster, a lady with whom I used to work in the Pit asked me at break tonight what I thought of Sarah Palin.

"Oh, my, do you really want to get me started on her?" I asked.

She grinned and said, "Oh yes, I do!"

"Okay, I'll give you the condensed version. I think that Sarah Palin is a rancid bitch."

This chick about choked on her coffee from a combination of surprise and laughter.

"Do you want me to go on?" She nodded. "Okay. So, yeah, the fact that she has the audacity to identify herself as a woman makes me want to rip her skin clean off her bones and beat her to death with it. I don't know if she's just so power-hungry that she doesn't care or if she's too dumb to realise that the only reason that living wrinkle chose her to be his running mate is because she's female, and he's hoping this may get him some votes. That's the only way he'd get votes 'cos the only way he'll ever get in the White House is the same way that rat bastard currently in the White House got it ~~ by stealing it."

She chortled. "And what was it you called Sarah Palin again?"

"A rancid bitch, and you can quote me on that."

And I left amidst peals of laughter from her and those close enough in proximity to hear our exchange. I'd like to think that the laughter was tinged with approval for my words. I'm soooo gonna get shot someday, probably with a blindfold on and a Marlboro clenched betwixt my fangs.

Tonight was the first night all four lanes were open at Sally Foster. Each lane has two lines, so I was responsible for supplying approximately 20 workers with orders on eight lines with essentially only a half day's worth of training. I think I did relatively well. It's like I came in to work and had an epiphany about what I was supposed to do, and everything fell into place. Well, at least that's how it was pertaining to what we were working on tonight. Frank wanted me to supply orders to everyone to the point that they'd all finish up right around 9 PM. All the lines were clear and I ran stats on each lane by 9:05. We pulled over 20,000 units in four hours. Frank said that was unprecedented for a crew of mostly trainees on our first night. I'm thinking that it will all get even easier now that I have some semblance of confidence in what I'm doing. I like working in the Control Room, surrounded by computers. It are fun, yes it are yes it are.In other news, I hate the grating noise that comes out of Sarah Palin's face every time she opens her pie hole, but I doubt it's really gonna matter much since we're all SKA-REWED.

I'm going to have to be really careful over the next month. After the 2000 debacle, I thought my heart was going to stop from fright. After 2004, I thought my brain would burst from frustration. I get too caught up in the drama of American politics and would like to survive long enough to at least vote before I die from the stress.

Last night I watched the first fifteen minutes of the debate, then slunk off to bed. I couldn't take it. Aunt Tudi taped it and asked if I wanted to see the rest of it, but I declined. I just can't take it. Despite my conviction that the American people will vote for Obama by a landslide, I've the uneasy feeling that McCain will still be our next president. That is, if Dubya gives up the White House at all. What I really believe will happen is there will be another "terrorist attack" on American soil that will lead to martial law in the US. All elections will be indefinitely postponed and we'll be put down if we protest the powers that be doing what they'd planned all along.

Once martial law is declared and Dubya becomes our first dictator, the Dominionist theocracy will be officially established. There will be some serious hell to pay after that.

I hope I'm wrong. I hope my proclivity for conspiracy theories is nothing more than my own paranoia singing another nonsensical song that no one wants to hear. But something tells me we're in for some severe shit over the next couple of months and the only ones to come out as winners will be Dubya and his goon squad.

We've been heading in this direction for years, since 9/11 really. The poorest of us have been feeling its looming presence draw ever closer with each passing day of the Bush regime. Now it's on our door step and all we Americans can do is bitch about the state of emergency that was once our economy.

We need revolution. We need some heads on pikes deeply lined up outside the White House. We need to stop bellyaching and start being proactive in changing our dreadful situation. But where do we begin? How do we begin?

I'm as clueless and hopeless as everyone else here, but I'm angry enough to want to grab a pitchfork and poke me some khaki-clad cracker arses.

We can't let them get away with one of their clichéd manœvres this time. Don't let one little dinky ploy get past our necessarily constant and sharp vigil Go do this or I'll kick you in the virtual privates.

PBS is doing one of those instant online polls to ask America" if they think Sarah Palin is fit to be Vice President.

The GOP has launched a successful all out blitz to get Republicans to go on the site and click "Yes". As a result right now it looks like 62% of "America" thinks Palin is qualified. The Republicans are going to be milking this for all its worth in their press efforts.

We need to drive more Democrats and those opposed to Palin to the site to click "NO". Let's not give the GOP another easy weapon to put in their PR arsenal!

From polypolyglot: I'm glad that you're reading the S.M. Stirling Emberverse books. Are there any other apocalypse-themed books you'd like to recommend to us?

As far as fiction is concerned, I highly recommend The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It's pretty much the bleakest novel I've ever read, which rates it high in my Gothic world. In regard to non-fiction Alpaca Liptic reading, I would suggest any books on the year 2012 and survival guides like how-to books on gardening, hunting, and defending oneself against angry mobs of hungry humans.From sapphirescarlet: What's a good pick-me-up now that the Red Eye Grande is gone?

Politics. Watching the political drama during an election year in the United States is enough to get your blood boiling like three Redeye Grand&eacutes drunk one after the other. From booraven22: Zombie George Bush tries to re-take the White House.

He lurched toward the front door, flesh dripping off his cocaine-saturated bones like dried syrup on an unwashed IHOP platter. The wet slapping of his rotten feet scared off a feral cat lurking in the shadows of the well-manicured shrubbery. The odour emitting from his dessicated body was not much different from what he smelled like when he was alive, so no alert was sounded since the Secret Service guards had long since become desensitized to that particular stench. When he finally reached the doors of the White House, Zombie George Bush rattled the handles and pounded on the wood, moaning a demand that he be granted entrance, that he was the only true leader of this country.

The door slowly opened, revealing the new President of the United States. In his hand was a railroad spike, which he swiftly plunged into Zombie George Bush's forehead. The tip of the spike exited at the base of his skull. Zombie George Bush stiffened, then crumpled at the President's feet.

"Why on Earth did you do that?" the First Lady asked, wrapping her house coat around her in reaction to the horror before her.

"It's the only way to kill zombies," the President said. "You have to destroy the brain, although I was afraid it wouldn't work on this one, considering who it was."

Both the President and First Lady laughed at this as they watch the Secret Service arrive to clean up the mess. Closing the door, the President led his wife back into the White House. It was going to be a busy day tomorrow, trying to right all the wrongs George W. Bush had enacted upon the nation and the world, and it was late. At least now, the world was safe from Zombie George Bush thanks to Barack Obama and an inexplicable railroad spike that just happened to be lying in a foyer of the White House.

So Hillary didn't get the nomination. So what? I've always liked Hillary Clinton. I admire her smarts and, yes, her cunning. She's a Liberal Sith. But Barack Obama was chosen by the party to run against the Crypt Keeper and his animal-killing beauty queen, and I'm fine with that. I like Barack too. He's not as Sithly, but that's okay. I'm fine with that too. I will support anyone running against the Conservatives, whether it's Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or Smidgen. And, trust me, Smidgen would run against the Conservatives, and probably win, because Smidgen is Smidgen and she rocks like no other Earthling.

But back to serious, if not superficial, politics. I know a lot of people are unhappy about Hillary not even getting the VP nomination and are thinking about jumping ship because of it, but that's absolutely crazy and stupid, in my opinion. What are you saying, that you'd rather have yet another Republican controlling things for four more years than have a Democrat other than Hillary Clinton? If people aren't willing to compromise, then we deserve whatever horrors are in store for us if the worst happens and Dubya passes his iron hammer onto another right wing asshole.

I know there's the argument that Barack Obama doesn't have much experience, but maybe that's exactly what we need, someone who hasn't been in Washington DC for so long that the job would be business as usual and nothing would get done. We might do tons better with a president who is not yet jaded by our corrupt political system. My only concern is that Mr. Obama will be blown away before he can do some of the things he wants to do. He sounds and acts an awful lot like John and Robert Kennedy, and we all know what happened to them. If the Neocons can't cheat their way into power, they aren't above killing to usurp the positions they want. Don't think it can't happen again. If they can pull off 9/11, they can do anything. My only hope is that Barack is protected enough.

The last time I voted for a president was in 1996, when I voted for Bill Clinton the second time around. I was never so passionate about Al Gore or, especially, John Kerry. I cast my ballot in 2000 and 2004, but I was voting against Dubya more than I was voting for the Democratic candidate. This time around, though, I will be voting for someone again. Even though I was a Hillary supporter, I'm quite happy to vote for Barack Obama. I'm excited about the prospect of the nation in which I live being redeemed from the sins committed by our present Führer. I may even go so far as to say I harbour a wee bit of hope that things may be turned around, at least a little, in the capable hands of Mr. Obama. If he's smart, he'll tap Hillary for a cabinet position. If he doesn't, though, I'm not going to grouse over it.

I'll just be happy to see that bastard Dubya and his evil henchmen gone from DC and the collective backs of the world.

Why isn't anyone being reminded that John McCain was one of The Keating Five? Everyone is so quick to cite the man as someone of substance and ethical fortitude, lauding him as a "war hero," but no one seems to remember that he's indirectly responsible for thousands of people losing their retirement savings, throwing them into abject poverty at an age when they should be allowed to rest and be free of worry. The man is a bastard, just like every other fucking Republican.

I didn't have anything against Obama until he said he planned on expanding the Faith Based Initiative that shithead in the White House conjured up from Hell. With him doing this, I'm hard-pressed to even vote at all, but I will vote. I've voted ever since I turned 18 and I'm 40 now. I vote against people when I go to the polls because there's never really anyone to vote for. The only time I ever voted for anyone was when I voted for Bill Clinton both times. I loved him. And I love his wife. Sure, they're crooks, just like every other politician. But at least these crooks actually did some good.

I don't trust the Republican Party. They have been in the back pocket of the Religious Right for quite a long time. Dubya has been their best puppet. Who's to say McCain won't carry on the torch? Not to mention he plans on expanding our hawk status in the world, making certain more of our young men and women get killed while they commit state-sanctioned atrocities on innocent people in their own countries. And he's stolen from old folks. That's pretty fucking low, if you ask me.

I don't see a choice. My only hope is that Obama and Hillary bury the hatchet and she becomes his running mate. That way he'll have someone to talk some sense into his rookie ass and I won't have to worry so much that I or mine won't get the help we might need just because we're Witches in a Fundamentalist world. ::heavy sigh:: It's dilemmas like this that make me ache for 2012 to get here quickly.

Before I journal about the activities and special moments of yesterday's trip to Asheville, I have to rant. What I have to say my offend some people, especially some women, so I'll put a cut here to spare folks who care not to go any further.

Also, to rape victims, this may be triggery, so please go no further.....unless you are a Right Wing idiot who is anti-choice.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I met a fellow liberal at the Duncan post office whilst out and about. Well, Aunt Tudi and I both met her. I had to compliment her on her car, then we got to chatting about our rare breed in this area and exchanged e-mail addresses. I got an email from her last night letting me know of the upcoming activities, one of which is Saturday morning at 9 AM ~ a Democratic organisational meeting. Aunt Tudi and I are planning on attending before I head over to Llew's for a visit.

I didn't go see the orthopaedist today. Her office called to reschedule because Dr. Jaworski had fallen ill. So, I go next Friday instead. It's probably for the best because of my fall from a few days ago, thanks to my knee. Where I hit my face, I have developed a fabulicious bruise that makes me look like a victim of domestic violence or an extra off the Jerry Springer Show.

I haven't helped or donated anything to the situation in the Gulf Coast yet. Yet. I feel terrible about what's happened and I'm sorry that so many people have been displaced, their lives in shambles.

HOWEVER

From what I've learned about hurricanes, they're nature's way of cooling off the oceans...and we're having a more active hurricane season because the oceans are warmer...and the oceans are warmer because of global warming...something Dubya contends does not exist and will not commit to trying to prevent...and Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama were all strong RED STATES.

Not to mention I am not fond of humans in general.

All that said, when I do donate some money (once I have my hot hands on my severance), I will be giving to the animal rescue organisations. The animals caught up in this horror aren't there by choice. Their human companions' ancestors were the brainiacs who thought building a city in a BOWL surrounded by WATER in an area prone to host HURRICANES was the most brilliant fucking idea they'd ever come up with. Their human companions are the ones who supported the beady-eyed sub-chimp whose policies will only encourage more numerous and violent hurricanes for the indeterminate future. Humans helped to create the mess in the Gulf Coast. The animals are the innocent victims here, as usual.

And honestly, if this had happened in a Blue State, I might be more inclined to help the humans because I'd think they were at least attempting to stop the insanity that oozes out of Washington DC like raw sewage. But we're talking about the South here, the very buckle of the Bible Belt. Most of these people voted for Dubya because they think God is on his side and theirs. Well, let God take care of them now. I'll do what I can to help the animals.

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." ~~Theodore Roosevelt

"Aristotle was famous for knowing everything. He taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain persons" ~~ Will Guppy

First off, my heart goes out to my British brothers and sisters. You don't deserve this, not at all.

Now....

Call me cynical, call me paranoid, call me mad.

But I think it's just a little too coincidental that there are bombings on the same island which Dubya currently infests. Where there is Dubya, there is death, strife, terror, and grief.

Sure there are terrorists out there. Sure they should just stop doing what they're doing.

But the #1 terrorist, whom I believe with all my heart is responsible for the 9-11 debacle (or at least his keepers are), should be stopped first and foremost. Then let's worry about the smaller cells.

If the queen ant is eradicated, all the other ants are scattered and without purpose. Just sayin'.....

I was just informed by my coworker that I should run for public office. Actually, I've seriously thought about it, but I know I ~~ 1)am not rich enough and ~~2) would probably be eradicated by Right Wing Christian Nazis. That may not stop me from at least trying in the end. She said she'd be willing to start me up a campaign fund. What about that? heheheheheh

Oh, and speaking of Right Wing Christian Nazis, I really dig my new lj pic. How amusing, eh?

Lew will be coming over tomorrow evening after I get off from work. We're planning on working on removing the overgrowth from the driveway and perhaps returning for a encore viewing of 'The Two Towers' with Aunt Tudi in tow. I'm looking forward to it.

Here's the weekly Quiz Thang. I'm particularly amused at the last one on many levels, since I'm a sucker for musicians, Scotsmen, and Boyds.

President Bush seems to think bullying is the only way to deal with dissent. Bush has so much trouble articulating a defense for his own policies, so little capacity to formulate a reasoned response, that he resorts to shibboleths, name-calling or worse, using authorities to shut down his critics.

President Bush seems to think bullying is the only way to deal with dissent. Bush has so much trouble articulating a defense for his own policies, so little capacity to formulate a reasoned response, that he resorts to shibboleths, name-calling or worse, using authorities to shut down his critics.

Classic Bush was his attack on Senate Democrats who refused to go along with his plan to strip workers at the new Department of Homeland Security of civil service rights. He quipped that senators were "not interested in the security of the American people."

Of course, U.S. senators can take care of themselves. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle made quick work of Bush's scurrilous claims, pointing out to the former Texas National Guardsman that a number of Senate Democrats were actually injured fighting for the security of our country.

But there are plenty of regular Joes out there who don't have access to the halls of power or C-Span, whose criticism of the administration has been sidelined by law enforcement.

In town after town where Bush has come to raise money or make a speech, his venue and the route leading up to it have been purged of protesters. This is accomplished through the combined efforts of local policing agencies and the secret service, which scour the crowd for any hint of opposition. Anyone with an anti-Bush sign is relegated into what is euphemistically called a Free Speech or Demonstration Zone -- a swath of land usually off the main thoroughfare and chained off so as to make it virtually impossible for the targets of the protest to read the signs or hear the chants. Those with pro-Bush signs are often treated very differently. They are free to cheerlead the president as he rides toward his engagement, which typically is further sanitized by being invitation-only.

This kind of censorship is indicative of a leader who lacks confidence in his own powers of persuasion and the legitimacy of his course. Why else would Bush be so interested in hiding evidence of dissent within the American populace?

The Secret Service claims that security concerns justify the use of segregated zones for protesters. That's a lot of bunk. As long as demonstrators do not impede the flow of traffic they have a right to be anywhere the general public is invited. Think about the freedom we would be giving up if police could cage anyone who wants to exercise his or her First Amendment rights.

As Bill Neel of Butler, Penn., says, "(Under the Constitution,) the whole country is a free speech zone." Neel, 65, a retired steelworker, was arrested on Labor Day for stepping outside the fence where he and a small group of protesters were cordoned off as the president made his way by motorcade for a speech to union carpenters. His sign read: "The Bushes must truly love the poor -- they've made so many of us." Bush supporters waving signs and flags were allowed to freely line the route.

Neel was charged with disorderly conduct and has a hearing on Oct. 31 at which he intends to fight the charge with the help of the Pittsburgh Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. His story is part of a disturbing national pattern.

Peter Buckley, a 45-year-old Democratic candidate for Congress in Oregon, expressed his frustration with the Free Speech Zones in a commentary for the Oregonian. In August, Buckley was part of a group of people who had turned out to protest Bush's economic policies among other things. They were herded into a dirt compound surrounded by a six-foot cyclone fence, 200 yards from the arena where Bush spoke to 5,000 invited guests.

"We were not allowed anywhere near any kind of position where the president, or the media which follows him, would see or hear us," Buckley wrote. "What is happening everywhere Mr. Bush goes is wrong. The effort being made to hide political opposition in this country is more than cowardly. It's un-American."

In Tampa, three people, including two grandmothers, were arrested last year at a Bush rally when they held up opposition signs outside the far-flung demonstration zone. Once again, people with supportive signs went unmolested. The charges against the three were later dropped as baseless, and a civil rights suit is expected to be filed within weeks against the Tampa Police Department.

In the past, courts have ruled protest pens invalid. Americans have a right to address grievances to their president when he appears in public, even if that ruins a particular "photo op."

My advice to Bush is to thicken his skin and work on the sagacity of his arguments.

Al Gore has decided not to run for president. I wonder if he was promised the same fate as Wellstone and his family had he decided to 'rock the boat' as 't'were?I don't know of any other who could possibly rival the Shrub in the presidential elections. Could this mean 8 years of tyranny?I'm really really depressed about this.

David Horowitz, a lapsed leftist and former speechwriter forSenator Bob Dole (R.-Kansas), and his Cochair Peter Collierhead two interrelated liberal-bashing organizations, theCommittee on Media Integrity (COMINT), and the Center forthe Study of Popular Culture. COMINT spearheaded recentattacks against the Corporation for Public Broadcasting;CSPC focuses on "political correctness" and publishes anewsletter, Heterodoxy, full of mean-spirited rantabout blacks, feminists, and homosexuals. Subscriptions toHeterodoxy or COMINT's Journal cost $25.

So....after standing in line for almost 2 hours behind a woman who had obviously not yet had her annual bath and having to put up with half dozen unruly children of SUV-driving ultra-conservatives who think everyone should not only tolerate their hellspawn, but also be grateful for the chance to bask in their parasitic presence, I was given the chance to cast my vote for governor and congressmen. And it was all for nought. The right wing Nazi pigs have more control now than they did two days ago which means they'll have more leeway to hack away even harder at our civil rights in the name of 'national security' and hold the entire world in terror as they beat the war drums for oil (oh..sorry...that's freedom). How disgusting.

As if things couldn't get any worse, on a personal note, I finally got BA on the phone...and promptly made a complete ass of myself. Instead of saying "Mr. Andrews, this is Ms. Evans" as I had planned to do in mock formality, when he came to the phone I immediately said "This is Ms. Andrews."

In the immortal words of Dom DeLuise as Father Fyodor in The Twelve Chairs: "I DON'T WANT TO LIVE!"

Other than that, the conversation was a good one and more concrete plans have been made for his 2003 invasion of the musical wasteland that is the US music scene. Yay!

If I can survive the utter mortification I'm experiencing at the moment and not get arrested by Bush's Thought Police for not being a khaki wearing cracker clone for Big Brother, things might just be looking up for 2003.

The American Freedom Coalition began in 1987 with a mergerof Robert Grant's fundamentalist organization ChristianVoice and the American Constitution Committee of ReverendSun Myung Moon's Unification Church, with the Moonconglomerate providing the initial funding. Its firstactivity, orchestrated by direct-mail expert RichardViguerie, was a massive fundraising effort for theNicaraguan contras and Oliver North. The AFC hasset up field offices around the country and regularlycomments on US foreign and domestic policy. During the GulfWar, the AFC organized patriotic pro-war rallies nationwide.Local cells of the AFC have become increasingly shrill intheir campaigns against abortion, gay rights, and "weirdart." A minimal donation of $15 provides a 6-monthmembership, including a subscription to the AmericanFreedom Journal.

Though Family Friendly Libraries (FFL) publicly portrays its mission as broadly altruistic and concerned with all aspects of children's education and development, its motivating force and unifying obsession is the fear that public libraries are a vehicle for homosexual indoctrination. Now in its infancy as a national organization, FFL grew out of battles in Fairfax County, Virginia over free distribution of the Washington Blade, a D.C. gay weekly, and the presence of "pro-homosexual" literature in local libraries. During this struggle, which began in about 1992, Karen Jo Gounaud rose quickly to prominence as a fierce and tenacious opponent of the so-called gay agenda. The wife of a retired Air Force officer and mother of two grown children, Gounaud is an evangelical Christian who holds a degree in education from the University of Nebraska. It was she who mobilized Christian parents of Fairfax county in an effort to end the availability of the Blade in the lobbies of branch libraries; led a drive to drop or sequester books she considers harmful to children; and pressured the Fairfax library system into spending a chunk of its budget on obscure and in some cases self-published books with titles like Steps Out of Homosexuality and You Don't Have to Be Gay. Her influence, long felt throughout northern Virginia, is beginning to have national impact. Her statements on the evils of spending taxpayers' money on "the type of books people don't want" bear depressing similarities to pronouncements that have badly eroded public support for the National Endowment for the Arts. Her campaign to demonize the American Library Association is beginning to see results, with some local library systems rewriting the Library Bill of Rights to eliminate all provisions that condemn censorship and uphold freedom of expression. While much of Gounaud's dogma can be traced to Focus on the Family and the rabidly homophobic Family Research Council, she has received major tactical and (we think) financial support from the Christian Coalition. The event that launched Family Friendly Libraries as a national entity was a conference held in Cincinnati on October 21, 1995 at the invitation of Phil Burress, founder of the militantly anti-gay, pro-censorship Citizens for Community Values (CCV), the Christian Coalition's Cincinnati affiliate. A newsletter is promised; write for literature.

According to National Review editor William A.Rusher, "If any conservative organization deserves pride ofplace, surely it is the Heritage Foundation. Launched in1973 by Paul Weyrich, Joseph Coors, and Edwin Feulner, itset out to provide the conservative movement with anaggressive and competent think tank that would provide thesort of policy guidance... that such organizations as theBrookings Institution had long furnished for liberals." Thethinking that occurs at the Heritage Foundation involvesfinding a saleable rationale for preconceived right-wingpositions. Its resources helped engineer the success ofNewt Gingrich and the Contract with America. The HeritageFoundation issues "backgrounder" reports that give a stampof credibility to misinformation and errors of fact;Backgrounder No. 803, its January 1991 report onthe NEA, was especially influential. Send $18 for asubscription to Policy Review, the HeritageFoundation quarterly, or ask to be placed on the mailinglist.

"I just can't stay on the sidelines any longer!" Falwell,host of the "Old Time Gospel Hour" and founder of LibertyUniversity, emerged from temporary retirement in 1991,announcing that he might reactivate the Moral Majority, thenow-defunct organization that first brought him fame outsidethe Bible Belt. While this threat has failed tomaterialize, he has put together a relatively small-scaleoperation called Liberty Alliance. Falwell remains avisible presence, continuing to crank out inspirationalbooks, anti-gay hate videos, and other fundraisingparaphernalia. His greatest recent hit is the videoClinton Chronicles, which accuses President Clintonof skullduggery of preternatural proportions. At $44.95,which includes membership in Liberty Alliance, the Clintonvideo is no bargain. Ask to be placed on the LibertyAlliance mailing list.

A right-wing group denounced by many mainstream Catholics,the militantly homophobic, anti-choice, pro-censorshipCatholic League has links to organizations ranging from the Heritage Foundation to Operation Rescue. In 1985, theLeague spearheaded efforts to ban Jean-Luc Godard's filmHail Mary nationwide. Three years later, theyjoined Donald Wildmon and others in attacking MartinScorsese's Last Temptation of Christ. In 1990, theMassachusetts chapter (then led by Heritage Foundationalumnus and former Pilot editor Philip Lawler)tried to have the work of Robert Mapplethorpe and otherartists banned in Boston. In 1995, the League began waginga campaign against the Disney organization after Miramax, aDisney subsidiary, acquired distribution rights to theacclaimed British film Priest. William A. Donohue,an NYU-educated sociologist formerly attached to theHeritage foundation, succeeded John Puthenveetil as head ofthe organization in 1992. Membership is $25 and includes asubscription to the national newsletter, produced inMilwaukee.

Focus on the Family (FOF) is called "perhaps the largest andmost dangerous censorship group today" in Dave Marsh's book50 Ways to Fight Censorship. Dobson is a Christianfundamentalist family counselor who promotes "traditionalvalues." In his best-known book, Dare toDiscipline, Dobson advocates beating children withswitches, beginning at the age of 18 months. In 1985-86 heserved on the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography(the Meese Commission). He claims to have extracted aconfession from mass murderer Ted Bundy saying that pornmade him do it. Dobson actively opposes blasphemy, theteaching of evolution, and the "homosexual agenda." In1991, FOF relocated its 700-employee national headquartersfrom Pomona, California to Colorado Springs, in time topromote and help pass Colorado's anti-gay Amendment 2. Theorganization is active throughout the country, operatingthrough such loose affiliates as the Massachusetts FamilyInstitute, and disseminating propaganda through itssyndicated radio shows and more than a dozen periodicals. Ask for a complimentary copy of the slick monthly Focus onthe Family magazine.

To my American fellows, I urge you to call the number below. It will get you in contact with your representatives and let them know that thevotersdo not support a war that is unwarrented, costly, and, ultimately, deadly to the inhabitants of the countries involved (including the US ~ don't fool yourselves!!). I heard just today that the war on Iraq will cost the US an estimated $1 billion a month. Honestly, with our economy failing and the Stock Market dying a slow death, do any of you really think it prudent to go after the so-called enemy of our unelected leader's father?

Another thing to think about, too....what happened to our patriotic leaders' quest to hunt down and eradicate Osama bin Laden? Why, all of a sudden, is Saddam Hussein the big baddie? If you're like me and smell a very rancid agenda here, please call the number provided below! For what it's worth, let your voice be heard! Don't blindly follow this charlatan and bully. Tell your senators and representatives that you want the first war this man began last year to be resolved before he sets out on another quest (for nothing but oil and to avenge dear daddy).

If we don't let these people in power know that we're smart enough to be on to their crooked motives, these same people will continue to erode our rights and human rights worldwide.

The indomitable Pat Buchanan, right-wing columnist andtelevision commentator, scourge of the 1992 Republicanconvention, announced the formation of American Cause in thespring of 1994. The organization evolved out of the 1992Buchanan for President apparatus and is clearly meant to bea support system for the next Buchanan for Presidentcampaign. The kickoff event for American Cause, held inWashington in April 1994, was a two-day conference called"Winning the Culture War," which Buchanan proclaimed "theBoston Tea party of the cultural revolution." Whatever elseit may have been, the event was a bigoted revel designed toenhance Buchanan's stature in the eyes of his fans andallies. Speakers included professional homophobes Lon Mabonof the Oregon Citizens Alliance and Will Perkins of Coloradofor Family Values; "traditional values" advocate MichaelMedved; Dan Quayle's vice presidential chief of staffWilliam Kristol; home schooling proponent Mary Kay Clark,who described the National Education Association as "thetraining camp of the enemy of the family;" and Ezola Foster,representing Black Americans for Family Values, who referredto public schools as "socialist training camps." Theemphasis was on curbing freedom of expression in the name of"taking back the culture" for the reactionary right. As the 1996 Presidential campaign heats up, American Cause willbecome more visible. Write for information.

Brent Bozell, a zealot of impeccable right-wing pedigree, isthe nephew of columnist William F. Buckley and the son of L.Brent Bozell, Jr., who assisted Barry Goldwater with thewriting of Conscience of a Conservative. A closeassociate of the late Terry Dolan, the closeted gay founderof the National Conservative Political Action Committee,Bozell served for several years as the Dolan organization'sfinance chairman and president. In 1991, he helpedorchestrate a smear campaign directed at the opposition toClarence Thomas's appointment to the Supreme Court; in 1992,he was the chief fund-raiser behind Pat Buchanan'sunsuccessful bid for the Republican Presidential nomination.The Media Research Center provides Bozell with a platformfrom which to bash the arts and popular culture. RecentlyBozell has been part of the drive to eradicate PBS.TV, etc., "the Media Research Center's review ofthe politics of the entertainment industry," is a monthlynewsletter that is oddly enamored of celebrity for apublication whose relentless theme is the abject rottennessof Hollywood. (Some celebrities, like Robert Redford, areridiculed for their liberalism; others, like Tom Selleck,are congratulated for their conservatism or, as in the caseof Mel Gibson, their homophobia.) The garish inaccuraciesof TV, etc., like the claim that the film versionof Last Temptation of Christ shows Jesus "engaging in sexacts and committing adultery," are sometimes entertaining,but the accretion of drivel it contains can be wearing. Asubscription can be yours for $35 a year.

From its mission statement: "Empower America is a uniquecombination of public policy institute and grassrootspolitical organization whose mission is to promoteprogressive conservative public policies at both the stateand national level based on the principles of economicgrowth, international leadership, and cultural empowerment." While Empower America bills itself as a "nonpartisan,nonprofit organization," its board of directors is a blue-ribbon panel of right-wing pro-corporate Republicans, andthe organization itself is a kind of stepchild of the Heritage Foundation. Amazingly for a nonprofit entity,Empower America proudly declares political candidates to beamong its "products." Its popular training sessions forreactionary candidates have enhanced the success of the pro-business theocratic right in recent years. Its four co-directors are former HUD Secretary Jack Kemp, Reagan's UNAmbassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, former Minnesota CongressmanVin Weber, and -- most visibly and actively -- HeritageFoundation Fellow William Bennett, former Secretary ofEducation and Chairman of the National Endowment for theHumanities under Reagan, drug czar under Bush, senior editorat the National Review, professional pompousbluenose, and prolific author of such Pecksniffian titles asThe Book of Virtues. In recent years Bennett hasachieved considerable notoriety as a self-appointed, self-congratulatory guardian of "traditional values," zestfullydemonizing art forms, individuals, and real or imaginedtrends in American culture. Some of his efforts have placedhim in unlikely partnerships with such purported liberals asC. Delores Tucker of the National Political Caucus of BlackWomen, with whom he conducted a joint campaign against rapmusic in 1995. Write or call for Empower America's terms ofmembership. Members receive a quarterly publication calledHighlights.

Operation Rescue (OR), the notorious anti-abortion groupbegun in 1988 by evangelical ex-used car salesman Rev.Randall Terry, specializes in blocking access to targetedclinics and subjecting patients, physicians and staff tointimidation and harassment. A queasy mixture of far-rightfundamentalist Protestants and reactionary Catholics, themembership includes many who would criminalize all forms ofcontraception and suppress all family planning informationother than exhortations to abstinence. During the 1992election, Randall Terry warned his followers that "to votefor Bill Clinton is to sin against God." With Clinton inoffice, Operation Rescue has shifted its focus to includeopposition to civil rights for gays and lesbians. OR hasalso been known to launch attacks on the arts. In 1990Boston-area members tried to block access to Serrano's "PissChrist" at the Klein Gallery, and threatened to blockadeBoston University's Photographic Resource Center. InFebruary 1994, Rev. Flip Benham of the Free MethodistChurch took over the directorship of the organization fromKeith Tucci, who left to found a separate ministry, the LifeCoalition, in Melbourne, Florida. Call or write for a copyof OR's National Rescue Update.

Ty Beeson, pastor of the Pentecostal Springs of LifeMinistry, joined his wife Jeannette in establishing TheReport as a production center and clearinghouse forpropaganda intended to stop gay rights legislation inCalifornia. Their most famous product, a 17-minute hatevideo called The Gay Agenda, has been compared toNazi anti-Semitic films like The Eternal Jew. Thevideo was originally created for use by the Oregon CitizensAlliance, the Oregon chapter of the Christian Coalition,which had obtained a grant from its parent organization todevelop educational materials. The educational content ofThe Gay Agenda consists mainly of militanthomophobe Paul Cameron's bizarre, discredited statistics onthe sexual habits of gay men, as portentously interpreted byJohn Birch Society/Christian Coalition activist StanleyMonteith. Other segments offer atrocity footage from GayPride marches, as well as testimony from "ex-gays" who claimto have been cured by a Pentecostal program called Love inAction. The video was an instant success, selling tens ofthousands of copies at $13.95. It has also receivedwidespread free distribution in states and cities facinganti-gay ballot initiatives. Scores of copies were sent toPentagon officials and members of Congress during the 1993debate over lesbian and gay military personnel. TheBeesons' other videos include The Gay Agenda in PublicEducation, Inside the March on Washington, andSexual Orientation or Sexual Deviation, You Decide. They also market jeremiads about AIDS by such "experts" asStanley Monteith. Recently they have paid special attentionto keeping homosexual materials out of schools, fighting sexeducation, and stamping out AIDS awareness programs. During1993, the Beesons permitted Peter LaBarbera, former editorof Concerned Women for America's Family Voice, topublish his anti-gay monthly, The Lambda Report,under their aegis. They have since parted company withLaBarbera and offer their own homophobic monthly journal,The Beeson Report, for $30 a year.